Training on Local Employees in Asian Hospitality Industry - Research Paper Example

 Effectiveness of Training on Local Employees in Asian Hospitality Industry 1. Introduction The Asian hospitality industry is in a constant state of evolution in a variety of ways. Primarily, changing social, economic and cultural values as a product of globalization and industrial development have improved accessibility of tourism-related locations to foreign customers and have also changed the methodology by which local employees interact with a broad demographic base of customers. As Asian countries become more developed and sustain competitive hospitality industries, the need to understand the diverse and complex lifestyles and attitudes of foreign (and sometimes domestic) visitors becomes a paramount need in order to satisfy clients and create a positive brand reputation for the specific hospitality business. Visitors maintain unique preferences and demands when it comes to their tourism experience and since front line employees are the first point of contact for these customers, it is imperative that the staff understands these needs and are offered appropriate training to make customer experiences rewarding and ensure long-term loyalty to the hospitality brand. In Asian hospitality industries that are led by expatriate European human resources managers, it becomes more difficult to streamline training and understand what drives local employee values, cultures and general beliefs related to lifestyle and the workplace environment. There are significant cultural differences between European leadership and Asian culture, thus making the job of providing adequate training even more difficult. This proposed research study evaluates the effectiveness of training on local employees in the Asian hospitality industry when considering the influence of European human resource management principles and ideals. 2. Literature review This section undertakes a review and analysis of existing literature on the Asian hospitality industry, cultural principles, and European values when or if they are extended into Asian businesses. 2.1 Cultural frameworks One primary understanding that needs to be explored in this proposed research study is the difference between European leadership and Asian employees at the cultural level. European human resources managers generally hail from cultures that are globalized and have a long-standing industrialized and commercial history. Much of this influence has come from Western countries, such as the United States, that acted as the framework for much of the modern human resources principles being used in a variety of industries today. European leaders are from individualistic societies, under Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Framework, whereby managers and employees value self-expression and independence in the workplace and tend to value personal goal attainment over that of group goal-setting and group-oriented rewards (Blodgett, Bakir & Rose, 2008). In this type of organisation or culture, individualists seek more decision-making authority and job role autonomy in order to remain loyal and satisfied so that they can become performance-oriented and seek to meet strategic goals. This individualistic attitude drives the majority of their human resources policies as it relates to employee training and learning. In Asian cultures, however, there is a strong, historical trend toward collectivism. This type of culture values group norms and group affiliation over individualized expression where “they view themselves as a member of an extended family, place group interests ahead of individual needs, and value reciprocation of favours and respect for tradition” (Blodgett et al, p.339). Employees that have strong collectivist values often seek opinion and networking from peers and operate well in very structured, centralized management hierarchies. Collectivists often value rules and regulations and seek ongoing leadership presence in their job roles and do not function most effectively when left to autonomous job functions. The differences between collectivist mentalities and those of more individualistic, European values create potential conflicts between European human resource methodology and Asian employee, group-oriented demands. The hospitality industry, especially hotels, have less requirement for group-minded activities since the employment structure is so widely diverse related to job role and function within the organisation. European managers would be likely to develop Westernized models of human resources, especially since they were trained in these principles, and then attempt to superimpose these training programmes and values on Asian workers. European managers might attempt to create a decentralized organisational structure and attempt to develop individualized employee development as a human capital development objective. It is likely, based on collectivist norms, that Asian workers would not achieve satisfactory outcomes when exposed to a decentralized structure or training that imposes self-expression and individual reward for their accomplishments. Additionally, Asian employees often come from nations where uncertainty is rejected in many business decisions. Again, under Hofstede’s model of culture, Asian nations often are unaccepting of risk and will not tolerate an unstructured organisational hierarchy. Employees that have a long tradition of uncertainty avoidance will demand contingency plans in the event of failure in order to be comfortable with scenarios where risk is involved and will demand clear choices with no ambiguity (Donnison, 2008). European leadership, on the other hand, with their individualistic self-expression values, might attempt to impose risk since Europe is often low on the uncertainty avoidance index and are more willing to make short-term risk decisions if they believe the long-term outcome will provide superior results. This distinction between European leadership and Asian cultures must be identified as two radically different cultural beliefs that drive business momentum and decide the structure by which training is delivered. A decentralized organisation spreads decision-making throughout the organisation and removes it from the top layers of executive leadership (Carpenter, Bauer & Erdogan, 2010). Allowing employees to become more involved in routine decision-making and offer innovative ideas and concepts to assist the organisation in becoming more effective might have detrimental outcomes by those hailing from cultures where uncertainty avoidance is part of their cultural norm. The evidence related to this cultural principle might suggest that European leaders need to develop training programmes that have limited perceptions of risk, a clear structure with no room for misunderstanding or vague outcomes and have clear contingency plans as part of the structured training programme. “Leaders aspiring to be effective in multicultural environments must develop an awareness of the different dimensions of culture that are and will be most central to their different constituencies of customers or followers” (Shriberg & Kumari, 2008, p.20). 2.2 Asian employees and their service roles In order for European human resources managers to be effective, according to Shakerin (2006), the leader must be able to examine the norms, values, relationships and mental processes of workers to create an HR programme that will be effective. This includes understanding their social networking needs and their local work habits as compared to European values in these areas. Why? According to Sandoff (2005, p.530), “Human beings are essential to service production. They are sensitive and reflect often on what they experience, whilst responding to their inner feelings and individual interpretations”. Asian employees in the hospitality industry are often the most appropriate point of contact for customers and they must be trained to provide top quality customer service principles in order to give the business a positive brand reputation. However, the literature suggests Asian workers will be emotionally responsive to their environment and workplace structure which has the potential to impact customers negatively if they are unsatisfied with the methodology by which they are led. Since they are integral to ensuring a quality customer experience, training must take into consideration psychological and sociological dimensions related to Asian culture and ensure they are incorporated into all training packages related to the customer intervention. 2.3 Methods for training amid cultural differences Preliminary tools to use during training programmes, in order to measure their perceived effectiveness by Asian workers, include employee surveys. For example, an employee satisfaction survey can be developed by the more progressive European HR manager to focus on job role aspects, their attitude related to the social environment, or their general attitude related to the quality of training they feel they are receiving (organizedchange.com, 2008). This is a form of ongoing research study that should assist the more individualistic European leader in developing a programme most effective for Asian workers even if it conflicts with their core cultural and social values found in their European host country. It acts as a form of total quality management and assessment regarding training and should allow the European leader to develop new concepts to include in ongoing training programme development and distribution. Failure to identify with these needs would likely lead to conflict and communications problems. The evidence provided, based on cultural differences with Asian workers, indicates that not all European concepts related to human resources would be effective, thus requiring a new methodology for servicing employee needs at multiple levels. 3. Research aims and objectives The aim of the research is to identify the distinct differences between European leadership and Asian culture and how this pertains to the hospitality industry when considering training objectives and programme development. “Stakeholder collaboration has the potential to lead to improved dialogue, negotiation and the building of mutually acceptable proposals about how tourism should be developed” (Bramwell, 2000, p.27). Since the European HR leader and Asian workers will have ongoing, routine interactions throughout the provision of service delivery, collaboration seems to be called for. 1. What are the real-life cultural differences between Asian employees and the European leader that will impact positive negotiations and improve dialogue between the two cultures? 2. Should there actually be collaboration between the two cultures, a form of merged philosophy, in order to gain ground in training or should there be a distinctly Asian-minded programme for training that negates European values? Therefore, the first objective is to identify, clearly, how stakeholder collaboration between European HR leadership and the Asian worker should be approached. 3. What are the mental, social and work habit practices most commonly found in Asian workplaces that drive their decision-making, performance and loyalty? Since this proposed research study deals with training, the objective is to identify sociological backgrounds related to Asian workers and gain an understanding of how they are motivated psychologically to achieve organisational goals. 4. Since most Asian workers seem to prefer a structured, risk-averse environment, should there be a decentralized focus that builds on individual development or should there be group-oriented themes in training? Because Asian workers, as provided by the literature review, appear to be driven by structured organisational designs, the final objective of the study is to identify what specific training tools should be used to implement training when cross-cultural demands complicate the training process. 4. Research design In order to effectively answer the research questions and fulfill the proposed objectives, a qualitative study is proposed. “The study of business is afflicted by confusion between the results of a survey of what people think about the world and a survey of what the world is really like” (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2007, p.4). Because this study is dealing with the psychological and sociological elements of Asian culture and values, it would be difficult to quantify what is actually occurring in real-life Asian hospitality industries. These are broad cognitive values and social networking concepts that are best measured through subjective research design rather than statistical representations. Because of the difficulty in research of identifying current Asian businesses that maintain European expatriate human resources leadership, this study will have two distinct sample populations. First, the researcher will identify three different hospitality industries in the European marketplace and interview the human resources manager in these organisations. Questions related to culture, knowledge of cross-cultural needs related to Asian employees, and current training methodology will be added to the open-ended interview questions. Interviews, upon approval, will take approximately 40 to 60 minutes and consist of approximately 15-20 questions related to European cultural, social, training and business philosophy concepts. The second sample will consist of approximately 30-35 Asian hospitality workers in non-management fields to identify similar principles of attitudes related to social networking, human resources leadership, job role function, collectivism, and job role autonomy. In addition, the closed-ended questionnaire will identify values related to rewards methodology, customer interactions, and their knowledge of European culture and values (if applicable). The goal of this recruited sample is to identify their current knowledge and needs in real-life hospitality environments as it pertains to training programmes. To ensure reliability, a test/retest structure will be developed with the Asian sample. The idea is to ensure that the same results outcomes can be repeated if the questionnaire is distributed to a similar population. For validity assurance, the developed interviews will be compared to actual case study data , from reputable journal or textbook sources, looking for similar training and/or culturally-related data from previous interviews in the same industry. After completing the interviews and distributing the questionnaires, data received will be analysed looking for correlations or notable discrepancies related to Asian and European cultural values. The goal is to identify with specific social, psychological and cultural differences or similarities and then apply them to training methodology that is commonly used in both cultural environments. Since the study is qualitative, measuring attitudes rather than statistics, consultation will occur with a variety of sociological and psychological texts and journals to assist in the analysis portion of the study. Results of the study will be presented graphically or in table format (when applicable) with clear identification of correlations or discrepancies between the two cultures. References Blodgett, J., Bakir, A. & Rose, G. (2008). A test of the validity of Hofstede’s cultural framework, The Journal of Consumer Marketing. 25(6), p.339. Bramwell, Bill. (2000). Tourism, Collaboration and Partnership: Politics, Practice and Sustainability, Multilingual Matters. Carpenter, M., Bauer, T. & Erdogan, B. (2010). Principles of management. Retrieved March 10, 2011 from http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/pub/1.0/principles-management/29065. Donnison, P. (2008). Executive coaching across cultural boundaries: an interesting challenge facing coaches today, Development and Learning in Organizations. 22(4), p.17. Organizedchange.com. (2008). Employee surveys, 360 feedback, assessments and balanced scorecard, Organized Change Consultancy. Retrieved March 7, 2011 from http://www.organizedchange.com/surveyshome.htm Sandoff, M. (2005). Customization and standardization in hotels – a paradox or not?, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 17(6/7), pp.529-536. Saunders, M., Lewis, P. & Thornhill, A. (2007). Research Methods for Business Students, 5th ed. Harlow, Pearson Education Limited. Shakerin, M.S. (2006). Integration of local culture and perception in promotion and marketing of solar cookers, San Joaquin Delta College. Retrieved March 8, 2011 from http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/solarcooking/images/b/b6/granada06_Mahnaz_Saremi.pdf Shriberg, A. & Kumari, R. (2008). Why culture matters: leveraging cultural differences to create a business advantage, The Business Review. 10(1), pp.19-25. Read More